The Riley 4 / Sixty Eight and Riley 4 / Seventy Two are cars produced by
BMC from 1959 to 1969, under the
Riley marque. They are closely related to the
Pinin Farina
Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930.
On 14 December 2015, the Indian ...
-designed
MG Magnette Mark III and
Wolseley 15/60
The Wolseley 15/60 is an automobile which was produced from 1958 to 1961, and then, as the Wolseley 16/60, from 1961 to 1971. The 15/60 was the first of the mid-sized Pininfarina-styled automobiles manufactured by the British Motor Corporation ( ...
and the simpler
Austin A55 Cambridge Mark II,
Morris Oxford V pair, sharing the MG's rear styling and engine (with a milder cam). This Riley was the most expensive car in that series.
[
This model's introduction, using the same engine, did not affect production of the smaller-bodied 1½-litre ]Riley One-Point-Five
The Riley One-Point-Five and similar Wolseley 1500 are automobiles produced by Riley and Wolseley respectively from 1957 until 1965. They utilised the Morris Minor floorpan, suspension and steering but were fitted with the larger B-Series en ...
sports saloon which continued until 1965.[
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]
Riley 4 / Sixty Eight
Launched in April 1959, the 4 / Sixty Eight was the last of the five B series BMC Pininfarina cars to be released. The Riley used the twin-carburettor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...
B-Series straight-4
A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...
engine in the form already familiar to drivers of the MG Magnette III,[ producing 64 bhp (48 kW). This was 6 hp (4.5 kW) more than the similar Wolseley 15/60.
From the outside the car was distinguished from its siblings by a Riley grille on the front and (apart from the MG with which it shared its tail treatment) slightly less acute tail fins at the back.][ Inside, the fascia was relatively well equipped: this was the only one of the five cars to come with a rev counter as standard equipment.][
]
On the road
A car was tested by the British magazine ''The Motor
''The Motor'' (later, just ''Motor'') was a British weekly car magazine
''Car'' is a British automotive enthusiast magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. International editions are published by Bauer Automotive in Republi ...
'' in 1959 and had a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 18.8 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £1028 including taxes.
It was intended to be the most luxurious of the Farina-styled B-series cars and was priced accordingly. A brief road test was published under the headline: "Comfort not Sacrificed to Appearance in New Riley". The motoring correspondent of ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' reported the more expensive Riley shared a similar specification with the MG Magnette Mark III but the Riley had different points of styling and its very full equipment included a tachometer
A tachometer (revolution-counter, tach, rev-counter, RPM gauge) is an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the revolutions per minute (RPM) on a calibrated anal ...
. The driver sat upright and gained a sense of mastery of the car steering from the well-furnished interior which had the right combination of leather, walnut veneer and pile carpet. Gear changing was easy through a well-placed central lever.[Comfort not Sacrificed to Appearance in New Riley. ''The Times'', Tuesday, Dec 15, 1959; pg. 13; Issue 54644]
Riley 4 / Seventy Two
Just before the 1961 Motor Show, in October, the car became the 4/Seventy-Two. Closely related again was the 16/60 update to the Wolseley car. The engine was now 1.6 L (1622 cc), and Riley again got the twin-carb version with 68 hp (51 kW). It also used an improved suspension with anti-roll bar
An anti-roll bar (roll bar, anti-sway bar, sway bar, stabilizer bar) is a part of many automobile suspensions that helps reduce the body roll of a vehicle during fast cornering or over road irregularities. It connects opposite (left/right) wheels ...
s. The wheelbase was 1 in (25.4 mm) longer, through the moving of the back axle rearwards, and the front track was increased by 2 inches (5 cm).[ These modifications to the wheel locations were made at the same time to all the BMC Farina saloons, and were seen as an answer to criticism of the indifferent road holding of the 1959 cars.][ Borg Warner ]automatic transmission
An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving c ...
became an option in the Riley at the same time, making the Riley the first mass-produced car in Europe to adopt the Borg-Warner 35 system following Borg-Warner's establishment of a plant at Letchworth
Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249.
Letchworth ...
to produce a transmission package that ten years earlier had been developed for US applications.[
Further modifications to the suspension a year later included 'recambering the rear springs' to improve ride and roadholding,][ but from the outside there was little to distinguish the later Rileys from the models as they had appeared in 1959, and the car continued very little changed until its withdrawal in 1969.
The 4/72's main competitor, appearing in 1963, was the ]Humber Sceptre
The Humber Sceptre is an automobile which was produced in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1976 by Humber.
MK I (1963 to 1965)
The Humber Sceptre MK I, introduced in 1963, was a luxury car based on the Hillman Super Minx. It featured a unique ...
from the Rootes Group – with an 85 hp engine, 6-speed manual (four direct ratios plus overdrive
Overdrive may refer to:
Organizations
* OverDrive, Inc., a digital distributor of entertainment media
** OverDrive Media Console, a media player developed by OverDrive, Inc.
* Overdrive PC, a subsidiary of Velocity Micro
Technology
* Overdrive ...
3rd and 4th) or 3-speed automatic (post 1965) and a more modern interior it thoroughly trounced the 4/72 in reviews of the period.
When an automatic 4/72 was tested by ''The Motor'' magazine in 1962 they recorded a top speed of , acceleration from 0- in 20.6 seconds and a fuel consumption of . The test car cost £1186 including taxes. The manual car was £1087
The 4/72 was sold as the Riley 1500 in Argentina and as the Riley Comet in Austria.[
]
On the road
In October 1962, Britain's Consumers' Association published its fourth ''Which?'' car supplement to their magazine. The Riley had been compared with Fiat 1500, Peugeot 403B, Ford Taunus 17M and VW 1500 and the British Sunbeam Rapier
The Sunbeam Rapier is an automobile produced by Rootes Group from 1955 until 1976, in two different body-styles, the "Series" cars (which underwent several revisions) and the later (1967–76) fastback shape, part of the "Arrow" range.
The first ...
. The association reported that the Peugeot and the German Ford had the most virtues and fewest vices.
The report noted that its most severe criticism of all was of the Riley's handling, with increased speed it changed from understeering to oversteering. "It was not a car in which our testers drove with much confidence or pleasure". The Riley's braking system was considered to have more limitations than the other cars' systems.
Manufacture in Argentina
Another related car was the 1960–1966 Siam Di Tella
SIAM (an acronym from Sección Industrial Amasadoras Mecánicas, formerly SIAM Di Tella) is an Argentine home appliance brand, currently owned by "Grupo Industrial Newsan", a leader of the segment in the region. The original "Siam Di Tella" company ...
of Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, they were externally similar to the Riley 4 family, but with the Austin Cambridge rear body shape rather than the Riley's fins. . There was the sedan Di Tella 1500, the station wagon Di Tella Traveller and the pick-up (never produced in England) Di Tella Argenta. All of them were fitted with the 1489cc engine and 4 speed manual column change.The Cambridge-Oxford Owners Club
Di Tella - accessed 4 December 2008 The MG Magnette Mark IV was also produced but with the nomenclature Di Tella Magnette, both in 1489cc and 1622cc forms.[Also known as : Farina-based models, AROnline]
Retrieved on 25 November 2012
References
{{British Motor Holdings and British Leyland cars, 1966-1986
4
Cars introduced in 1959
Compact executive cars
Sedans
1960s cars
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles